Attorney Enters Music World With Lee Greenwood As Client

April 30, 1985|By Wesley Loy of The Sentinel Staff

LEESBURG — Local attorney Walter McLin is finding himself in Nashville, Tenn., more and more these days, and with good reason. Keeping track of a client like country music star Lee Greenwood can get pretty hectic.

The association has established new horizons for McLin, 50, who has practiced civil law in Leesburg since 1962. The first order of business was learning the complex world of country music.

''It's certainly been different,'' McLin said. ''Nashville is a very, very large city and the music business plays a big part in it. I've met a lot of people who are big names in the entertainment industry.''

Greenwood had not yet reached the stardom he enjoys today when McLin first met him through a mutual friend four years ago, but he was well on his way, having just signed a contract with MCA Records.

When Greenwood and his manager learned that McLin was a lawyer, they put him to work reviewing contracts with the record company and with people who furnish concessions at the concerts.

Over the years the relationship has grown, and every so often Greenwood comes through Leesburg to spend a day or so with McLin at his home or office. ''The secretaries here are some of his greatest fans,'' he said, smiling. ''They just butterfly up to him when he comes in.''

Few country singers have been as successful as Greenwood in so short a time. He was voted male vocalist of the year in 1983 and 1984, and has at least two gold records to his credit, one for ''Somebody's Gonna Love You'' and another for ''Meant for Each Other,'' which he recorded with Barbara Mandrell. Greenwood has a ''greatest hits'' album due out sometime this month. McLin said one of the best things about representing Greenwood is get- ting to see him perform.

''That's one of the few times I get to visit with him,'' he said. ''His schedule is overwhelming since he works 250 days of the year on the road. He's a tremendous entertainer.''

Although Greenwood does a lot of his business in Nashville, McLin said working for him from his office more than 600 miles away in Leesburg is not a problem. Sometimes trips are necessary, like seminars on the music industry in California, but generally everything else can be done through the mail or over the telephone.

''I think most lawyers have to deal with that now,'' he said of the distance. ''It runs in spells. When we were doing the heavy contract talks with MCA and I was going to Nashville and to Los Angeles, it encroached more on my practice here.''

Other clients that McLin and partner Dewey Burnsed represent include the Lake County School Board, Citizens National Bank and the city of Leesburg.

McLin has been active in water management on the state level and is past chairman of the Florida Board of Business Regulation under former Gov. Reubin Askew. His new ties with country music have won him a spot on the entertainment law committees of the American and Florida bar associations.

On May 16, both McLin and Burnsed will travel with Orlando Mayor Bill Frederick to the People's Republic of China on a trade and friendship mission to promote Central Florida.

The trip will take the 16-member contingent to four Chinese cities and Hong Kong before its conclusion on June 2. The idea is to show what Central Florida has to offer both to tourists and to industrialists wanting to import high- technology products produced in the area.